Linde and BASF cooperate: Flue gas carbon dioxide capture

Trade News

Dresden, 15 January 2010 - Linde-KCA-Dresden GmbH (LKCA), a Linde Group subsidiary, and BASF signed today a cooperation agreement to jointly market licenses and plants for the capture of carbon dioxide (CO2) from flue gases.

Within this cooperation BASF will be responsible for the chemical processes for capturing CO2, while LKCA will provide engineering and design as well as the construction of the facilities. The cooperation will focus mainly on the Middle East region, where the demand for purified CO2 is increasing, for example to raise yields in crude oil production (by means of enhanced oil recovery) and in urea production.

“In a situation where energy production around the world relies predominantly on fossil materials and where this share is expected to increase further, we will concentrate precisely on these energy sources in our cooperation,” said Dr. Andreas Northemann, head of the gas treatment business in BASF’s Intermediates division, and added: “By pooling the two companies’ expertise we can provide our customers with integrated engineering solutions and even complete CO2 capture plants.” “Through this cooperation we will contribute to capturing and transporting climate-damaging CO2 in a controlled manner for recycling in purified form or final sequestration,” said LKCA Managing Director Jörg Linsenmaier.

LKCA, one of the world’s major chemical and gas plant engineering companies, has extensive expertise especially in the field of planning and building plants that separate and then compress CO2 from flue gases.

BASF has vast experience in capturing CO2 from gas flows. The company markets its amine-based gas treatment technology under the brand name aMDEA®. For many years this BASF process has been used successfully around the world in more than 220 gas scrubbing facilities, as they are known, mainly in natural gas and syngas facilities.

About LKCA

Linde-KCA-Dresden GmbH, a subsidiary of The Linde Group is one of the leading companies worldwide in the design, delivery and turnkey construction of chemical, gas, biotechnological and pharmaceutical plants. Commissioned by private and national clients, its engineers and managers successfully carry out projects of various sizes. It realises Linde processes as well as licensed and customer-owned processes. Chemical plants for recovery and processing of CO2 for the energy and petrochemical sector play an increasing role in the portfolio of the company. In the future field of CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) LKCA is building pilot and demonstration plants for international energy companies.

The Linde Group is a world leading gases and engineering company with almost 50,000 employees working in around 100 countries worldwide. In the 2008 financial year it achieved sales of EUR 12.7 billion. The strategy of The Linde Group is geared towards sustainable earnings-based growth and focuses on the expansion of its international business with forward-looking products and services.
Linde acts responsibly towards its shareholders, business partners, employees, society and the environment – in every one of its business areas, regions and locations across the globe. Linde is committed to technologies and products that unite the goals of customer value and sustainable development.

The BASF Group’s Intermediates division develops, produces and markets around the world a comprehensive portfolio of more than 600 intermediates. The most important of the division’s product groups include amines, diols, polyalcohols, acids and specialties. Among other applications, intermediates are used as starting materials for coatings, plastics, pharmaceuticals, textile fibers, detergents and crop protectants. Innovative intermediates from BASF help to improve the properties of final products and the efficiency of production processes. The ISO 9001:2000-certified Intermediates division operates plants at production sites in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Around the globe, 2,655 employees of the division generated sales of about EUR 2.5 billion to third parties in 2008.

BASF is the world’s leading chemical company: The Chemical Company. Its portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics and performance products to agricultural products, fine chemicals as well as oil and gas. As a reliable partner BASF helps its customers in virtually all industries to be more successful. With its high-value products and intelligent solutions, BASF plays an important role in finding answers to global challenges such as climate protection, energy efficiency, nutrition and mobility. BASF posted sales of more than EUR 62 billion in 2008 and had approximately 97,000 employees as of the end of the year.